xv, 444 pages : 24 cm

"In 1963, with the revolutionary 8 1/2, Federico Fellini put his deepest desires and anxieties before the lens, permanently impacting the art of cinema in the process. Now, more than forty years later, film critic and Fellini confidant Tullio Kezich has written the work against which all other biographies of the influential filmmaker are sure to be measured. In this moving and intimately revealing account of a lifetime spent in pictures, Kezich utilizes his friendship with Fellini to step outside the frame of myth and anecdote that surrounds him - much of which, it turns out, is of the director's own making." "A great lover of women and a meticulous observer of dreams, Fellini, perhaps more than any other director of the twentieth century, created films that embodied a thoroughly modern sensibility, eschewing traditional narrative along with religious and moral precepts. His is an art of delicate pathos, of episodic films that directly address the intersection of reality, fantasy, and desire that existed as a product of mid-century Italy - a country that was reeling from a Fascist regime as it struggled with an outmoded Catholic national identity. As Kezich reveals, the dilemmas Fellini presents in his movies reflect not only his personal battles but also those of Italian society. The result is a book that explores both the machinations of cinema and the man who most grandly embraced the full spectrum of its possibilities, leaving his mark on it forever."--Jacket

Translation of: Federico. 2002

Includes bibliographical references and index

Introduction : September 1952, on the terrace of the Hotel des Bains -- Was he born on a moving train? -- Dreaming of journalism -- Rome -- A thousand newspaper articles -- A dramaturge is born -- Miss Giulia -- Za's little slave -- A modern comedian -- One movie after another -- Wartime wedding -- Discovering Italy -- Writing is easier when there are two of you -- A moveable feast -- Stardust : Luci del varietà/Variety lights -- It all happened in five minutes : Lo sceicco bianco/The white sheik -- Farewell youth : I vitelloni/The young and the passionate -- A little bit Kafka : L'amore in cittá, un'agenzia matrimoniale -- Reality is a fairy tale : La strada -- Lea, "la Paciocca," and the others -- Martyr for the con : Il bidone/The swindle -- A kindly soul of the streets : Le notti di Cabiria/The nights of Cabiria -- A journey with Anita : Viaggio con Anita -- The summer of via Veneto : La dolce vita -- Public sinner -- The big Bishop of Federiz -- The dream man -- The moralist : Boccaccio '70, Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio -- The conscience of Guido : 8 1/2 -- The woman in the shadows : Giulietta degli spiriti/Juliet of the spirits -- La dolce morte -- Edgar Allan F. : Histoires extraordinaires, Toby Dammit -- Journey into the unknown : Fellini satyricon -- The ambassadors of a vocation : I clowns/The clowns -- A second native land : Fellini's Roma -- Distant memories : Amarcord -- A dispassionate seducer : Il Casanova di Federico Fellini/Fellini's Casanova -- The violent years : Prova d'orchestra/Orchestra rehearsal -- The bacchanalia : La città delle donne/City of women -- Ship of fools : E la nave va/And the ship sails on -- School for shamans -- And here's to you : Ginger e Fred -- Everyone is Japanese : Intervista -- The nostalgia of silence : La voce della luna/The voice of the moon -- The autumn of the patriarch : Three commercials for Banca di Roma -- The start of a great future -- Time line

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